


It's Over, Isn't It?

by Arynphallia



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Wolf, F/F, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25451836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arynphallia/pseuds/Arynphallia
Summary: "I dont think I've ever wanted anything more than I want you to come with me," the Doctor admits. "So what do you say? Get the old team back together?"
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, the Doctor/River Song (past)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 145





	It's Over, Isn't It?

The TARDIS has no less than twenty-seven gardens, each with it's own theme. Eight of which are centered around plants of earth origin. There's a Japanese zen garden, fields of sunflowers and lavender, orchards of fruit and fields of veggies, hanging gardens that would put Babylon to shame (and Graham would know, the Doctor took them last week), and an overgrown rose garden that Graham adopted as a between adventures project. 

He'd always loved gardening; it's soothing to help something else grow and thrive. The roses had not been thriving. He'd had to prune them considerably before weeding the beds. Then he planted marigolds to keep pests away (though he wasn't sure if the TARDIS could even have pests) and waited for them to bloom. 

"You know, I wonder how the other gardens look." Graham mused to the TARDIS, it had been incredibly easy to get into the habit of talking to the time ship, even if she rarely responded. "The food one must be in good shape, considering we always have fresh fruit. And I don't know anything about alien plants but you'd let me know if they need help, right?"

The TARDIS stayed unhelpfully quiet so Graham went back to his watering. 

"I just- big ship like this, the Doc must have her work cut out for her. Not sure how she does it all." 

The roses bounced back beautifully and burst into bloom nearly all at once, it brought a calming sense of accomplishment to Graham. He cut a few blooms for a bouquet, just something small for the galley table. They really are beautiful flowers and it wouldn't do to keep them locked away. 

The Doctor froze on the threshold of the galley, her eyes zeroed in on the vase of roses on the table. "Where did those come from?" She asked, holding herself impossibly still. 

Ryan looked up from his sandwich, seemingly unaware of the tension, "Graham grew them. Said something about a rose garden he wants to show us."

"Right." The Doctor spun on her heel and walked away at a rather brisk pace, like she was trying to run away without actually running. 

That garden is not supposed to exist. She'd made the TARDIS delete it centuries ago, it'd started out as a comfort project, spend all her time in a Rose garden to ease the ache of missing _her_ Rose. But it hadn't worked, not really. It was like putting a bandaid on a cut that needed stitches; effective for a short time, but only holding off the inevitable. Rose was gone. She could never come back and some days, the Doctor didn't want her to.

With her gone and trapped in the parallel world, the Doctor could never know for certain if she'd died. And that was a blessing even if it meant never seeing Rose again. 

She hesitated in front of the door, gripping the handle tighter than she should. She turned the knob, opening the door just a sliver and was hit with a wave of fragrance, pure undiluted rose. Rassilon, even the _smell_ hurt. She shoved the door the rest of the way open and crossed the threshold for the first time in centuries. 

Everything was impossibly the same and so entirely different that her hearts ached. The marigolds were new, Graham must have planted those. Just more yellow to go with the pink. 

Her throat felt tight and she tried to swallow against the lump in it. There was a burning pressure behind her eyes but she refused to cry. Too many tears had been shed in this room. 

She wandered deeper in and couldn't resist picking a single rose. It was masochistic at this point, with how entwined the Doctor's feelinging about roses and Rose were. 

There was a bench in the very back, put there with the express purpose of giving the Doctor somewhere mildly comfortable to sit while she tortured herself with memories. It's more or less unchanged, newly rusted in a few spots, but that might add to the charm, the Doctor mused as she sat.

"I supposed it really is over." She muttered softly, staring down at the rose in her hand. "I need to move past this. Properly this time. Instead of repressing everything until it all gets to be too much.

"Rose made her choice." She reminded herself aloud. "And handy was the best choice. She'd be dead several times over if I'd gotten to keep her."

Her free hand trailed across the wooden seat of the bench, subconsciously searching for something to fight with until she encountered a pattern. Only, patterns didn't feel quite like that. Those were words! She sat up straighter and leaned over to look for the words. Those were new. She'd done this exact thing in this exact spot that she had the grain of the wood memorized by now. 

And there! 

No.

It couldn't be. 

Two worlds, pulled straight from her brightest hopes and darkest nightmares. 

Two little words that could change the fate of the universe more easily than the Doctor ever could. 

_Bad Wolf_

Nothing happens. The Doctor hangs on to her fear/hope, clinging to it desperately. But no catastrophe arises, and slowly, the Doctor gives up her hope. It must have been a mistake. Some sort of echo she found too late. Or maybe it was the TARDIS, trying to tell the Doctor that she misses Rose too. The Doctor will probably never know. 

She starts taking the Fam on adventures again, stops running near constant scans to find trouble and is generally just miserable. Sure, a universe ending threat would have been awful, but she's faced those before and after Rose with no sign of Bad Wolf. So it has to mean something. Or it doesn't mean anything and she's reading far too into this. Gah! She likes it better when the universe ending threats (and clues about them) are more in-your-face. 

She sets them to a random destination because she can't think of anywhere interesting to take the Fam and lands right in the middle of a war. Go figure. Sadly, it's nothing too major, just a planet-bound revolution and not a very bloody one at that. It's even over in time for tea, which the Fam decides they have to stay for. Which is good. She's not disappointed at _all_. Honestly though, why couldn't Rose pop up during a normal time? Just swing by and say hi? (The Doctor is well aware that she's been able to go visit Rose any time she likes but there's always the fear that she'll get the date wrong and Rose will be dead and gone by the time she arrives.)

Yaz elbows her suddenly, shaking her from her thoughts. "Hm? Oh! Yes, sorry, got a bit distracted, what were you saying?" She says to the bloke who's come up to them. He's one of the rebel officers and last she'd seen of him, he'd been holding the line with two stun guns and a barrel of fish. 

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but one of our prisoners keeps asking for you. Says she's your wife." He's not quite nervous, but he's got that stiff formality that people only get when they've seen her do something seemingly impossible with limited resources, in this case, it'd been disabling an entire platoon of enemy soldiers with the sonic and a ballpoint pen.

"Right then, let's go see her. Lead the way." Yaz trails along after her, holding on to the Doctor's jacket to keep from being separated in the crowd. 

"You have a wife?" Yaz shouts over the celebration taking place all around them. A couple streets down, someone sets off fireworks that nearly make the Doctor's ears ring. "I thought you said you lost your family a long time ago."

"It's complicated, Yaz. I'm a time traveler. I meet people out of order all the time. Even run into myself a few times." The Doctor explained, shouting to be heard. 

She wasn't looking at Yaz, couldn't really afford to look away from the officer (why hadn't she learned his name? She always tried to learn people's names) but she could feel the way Yaz tensed behind her, could feel each muscle tense as Yaz realized what that meant. "But she's-" a particularly loud firework cut her off, much to the Doctor's relief.

The 'prison' was actually a hotel that was slowly being filled with the corrupt government officials that had started this whole mess in the first place. What was River doing that she'd been caught up in all this? Oh, this would be fun. River would probably have absolutely no idea who she was. She'd have the upper hand again, which was always brilliant when it came to their meetups. She patted her pockets, looking for her journal, she had to have it somewhere- but no. She'd given it up after Darillium, assuming that would be the last page, that she'd never see River again. Silly old her. 

The Officer- Jenkins, she notes, finally seeing his name tag- stops in front of a door and opens the door. "Your wife is here for you."

"Wife?" A voice says from inside. The Doctor is so caught up in the thrill of getting to shock River that it doesn't even register that the voice coming from inside the room is decidedly _not_ River.

The Doctor swaggers (and there really is no other word for it) through the door with a grin on her face. "So what sort of trouble have-" Her words catch in her throat and she chokes on them. 

That face. That is _not_ River. A thousand different scenarios run through her mind and she looks Rose. Only it can't be Rose. But it is, isn't it? That Bad Wolf in the garden, it was real. Rose was actually here. 

" _Wife_?" Rose repeats, looking the Doctor up and down, complete shock written all over her face. 

"Rose." The Doctor breathes, unable to articulate anything more complex. She suddenly remembers that they have an audience and turns to Jenkins. "Yes, this is my wife. Why is she in custody?" 

"She was in the government building with the rest of the officials. And no one knew who she was or where she'd come from." He said with a shrug.

"So you thought it'd be fine to just lock her up?" The Doctor snaps. 

"She's free to go now that we know." Jenkins says as a peace offering so the Doctor immediately grabs Rose's hand and drags her from the building, all the while relishing the thrill of having Rose back. 

It's only when they're half way back to the TARDIS that the Doctor realizes she has no idea when this is for Rose. She veers into an alley, knowing well enough that if she gets Rose onto the TARDIS, she wouldn't be willing to let her go, timelines be damned. "Are the stars going out?" She asks Rose, desperate for a no. 

Rose's eyes go soft and she smiles, "You're northern again." 

The Doctor can't resist her smile, never could and ends up grinning at her like a loon. "And you're exactly the same, Rose Tyler."

They're still holding hands and leaning closer to each other, caught in their own little bubble. Yaz turns her back to them to give them some semblance of privacy for their reunion. 

"Not exactly the same." Rose replies, the smile falling off her face. She looks down and the Doctor follows her gaze, noting the blue leather jacket. A lump suddenly forms in her throat. This _is_ during Rose's hopping days. She's going to lose Rose all over again.

"Doctor?" Rose asks, pulling her from her thoughts. 

The Doctor looked up with a sheepish smile, "Sorry still trying to figure out when this all is for you."

"After." Rose says firmly. "We already stopped the stars from going out. The universe is fine."

The Doctor could nearly sing with relief, but it doesn't explain why Rose is alone. "And Pete's world? What about your mum? She's not going to pop up and slap me, is she?"

Rose smiles but it's brittle, a I'm-just-barely-holding-it-together smile. It's one the Doctor knows well, easily recognizes from years of practice. "Oh, Rose. I'm sorry."

Rose lets out a strangled sob and falls into the Doctor's arms. "They're all gone. 'S just me now."

The Doctor holds Rose tight and dreads to ask but she has to know, "The Metacrisis?"

Rose sniffles, "He's gone too."

She doesn't elaborate and the Doctor doesn't push. They stand there, clinging to each other in the alley with Yaz more or less standing guard as Rose's sobs slow and finally end. "Sorry, I got your shirt all wet."

"It's alright, not the first time you've cried on me, and if I have it my way, it won't be the last." It's not until the words are out of her mouth that the Doctor realizes how that could sound. "I mean that I'm always here if you need a shoulder go cry on. Not that I want you to cry, that'd be awful." She keeps babbling, trying to cover her bases and make sure that Rose that the Doctor does _not_ want to make her cry when Rose bursts out into a fit of giggles, effectively cutting off the stream of babble. 

"God, you've still got the gob." She laughs and the Doctor cracks a smile at her own expense, laughing is much better than crying, in her professional opinion.

"I'll have you know, Rose Tyler, that this gob has saved the day, many many times." She retorts, wondering if Rose will tease her like she used to. 

"Yeah, and three quarters of the time you use is to solve problems _you_ caused." Rose teases, her tongue catching in her teeth as she smiles. 

"I'm not the one that's jeopardy friendly. I get into significantly less trouble now." 

"Yeah?" Rose asks, deflating a bit and the Doctor flounders to figure out what she said that was wrong. 

"Yeah, but I miss it. Wouldn't mind a bit more trouble." She offers, hoping it does the trick. 

Rose looks up at the Doctor, her smile slowly returning, "Are you asking me to come with you?"

"I dont think I've ever wanted anything more than I want you to come with me," the Doctor admits. "So what do you say? Get the old team back together? Shiver and Shake back in action again?"

Rose gives her hand a squeeze and beams up at her. "Allons-y."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've finished in ages and I'm so happy to be able to post it! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
